


Selfie

by BlazeEBlake



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Destiel - Freeform, Ficlet, Flashbacks, Grief/Mourning, Impala, M/M, Men of Letters Bunker, Pictures, Post-Episode: s12e12 Stuck In The Middle (With You), Sam Knows, Season/Series 13 Speculation, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-28
Updated: 2017-08-28
Packaged: 2018-12-20 23:34:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11931687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlazeEBlake/pseuds/BlazeEBlake
Summary: After a careless check of his phone, Dean is needlessly reminded of what he has lost and how fresh his pain still is.





	Selfie

Dean hadn’t meant to look at it. He had complained about his phone’s lousy battery life and Sam had snarked back something about closing out of apps, setting him to the task of doing just that, clandestinely of course to avoid further derision. He’d been sitting in the impala, quickly swiping away at windows while his brother pumped gas, when he’d come across it, glaring back at him from his photo library. He wanted to say he couldn’t recall what had made him take the picture, but the only person he had to lie to at the moment was himself and that didn’t do him much good at all. Unbidden and unwanted, the memory played back for him with perfect, searing clarity.

 

_“Come on man, would it kill ya to smile a little?” He asked, lowering the phone in exasperation._

_Castiel shot him a pointed look, brow furrowing._

_“Alright, alright,” Dean conceded, “Poor choice of words, but seriously, for posterity. They were standing in the war room, mere days after the fight with the Prince of Hell that had almost taken the angel out for good. Sam and Dean had been going through the motions of researching a case when Cas had swept past them, mumbling something about looking for leads on Kelly. He had made it halfway to the stairs when Dean stopped him and asked him to hang back with enough something in his voice to have Sam making excuses to be elsewhere._

_"Dean,” Castiel grumbled, “is now really the time for selfies? I should be out there–”_

_“It ain’t a selfie if someone else is taking the picture,” Dean corrected, “Although, that’s not a bad idea.” With that, Dean marched over to his beleaguered friend and held the camera out in front of him, slinging his other arm around Cas’s shoulders._

_“Dean,” Castiel insisted, “There will be plenty of time for this after we deal with Kelly and the Nephilim. The sooner I leave, the sooner I can find them. Then I’ll come back–”_

_“Well you almost didn’t come back last time now did you?” Dean shot back, his tone betraying far more than he had intended. He felt Castiel’s eyes shift to him, briefly saw the surprise in them reflected on the phone’s screen before he let his own dart to the the ground._

_“Just–” he mumbled, “Just work with me, will ya?” He looked back up to the camera and Castiel nodded, lips pressing into a gentle smile that didn’t quite erase the question in his gaze. Dean huffed out a ragged breath, forced a grin of his own and snapped the picture._

_Then I’ll come back._

_Dean._

 

“Dean?" 

He started, all at once realizing Sam had returned and that at some point he had started crying. How many times since it had happened, since he had lost Castiel for good, had Sam found him like this or some variation of it?

"Hey,” Sam attempted, “Hey, its–”

“It’s not OK, Sam,” he interrupted, running a sleeve across his face roughly, “He said– he was supposed to-” Dean stops, shaking his head and giving the phone and the picture on it one last glance before tossing it into the back seat. 

“You want me to–?” Sam offered, gesturing toward the wheel. Dean started up the car, letting the roar of the engine serve as a response. 

“Piece of crap phone,” he muttered under his breath as he pulled out of the gas station, “Shoulda just let the damn thing die.”


End file.
